Following recent negotiations with Oxfordshire County Council (OCC), two new community bus trials have been announced in the Ploughley Division. The first will run every Monday (commencing 25th June) from Souldern to Bicester, via Fritwell, Fewcott, Ardley, Bucknell & Chesterton. The second will run every Thursday (starting 28th June) from Mixbury to Bicester via Finmere, Newton Purcell, Fringford, Hethe, Hardwick & Stoke Lyne.

Cllr Ian Corkin commented “Public transport in rural areas remains a challenge and I was more than happy to work with both OCC and the local community to set up this trial”

The service utilises Oxfordshire County Council’s fleet of specially adapted “Comet” buses. The trial will last for 20 weeks and will be free to all users during that time. It is anticipated that passengers will get approximately 2 hours in Bicester.

Ian continued “I hope the service will be well used and will open the door to other opportunities, but in the meantime I would advise everyone to make use of this free facility”

Notes:

Wheelchairs can be accommodated with 24hours notice to the service administrators (01295 257 930)

Ian Corkin is an Oxfordshire County Councillor for Ploughley Ward and also serves on Cherwell District Council for Fringford & Heyfords Ward

The free trial is being funded from OCC’s Community Transport budget to assess demand.

Nicholas Johnstone and Christine Kane contacted the website with the following offer:

Hello

We
moved into Fox Hollies, Foxhill Lane in January and are very much
enjoying living in this beautiful and friendly village.

We inherited a pond stocked with koi carp and
goldfish. We have had the pond extensively refurbished but there are
rather too many goldfish. We shall be happy to give some goldfish, free of charge, to
someone local with a suitable pond.

Existing members of the list should have had a message asking that they confirm their membership.

In order to comply with the new GDPR legislation which comes into force
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I am writing to you, and to all the other Parish Clerks in Deddington Ward,
to explain why I, as one of your (three) elected Members to Cherwell District
Council, will be voting against the Oxfordshire Housing and Growth Deal (the
Deal) when it comes to Full Council on 26th February. This puts me at odds
with the Leadership of the Council and in defiance of the Whip. Please
could you forward this to members of your Parish Council (who are, of course,
free to circulate it as they see fit).

I attach:

the full text of the "Oxfordshire Housing
and Growth Deal - Outline Agreement" (13 pages), and

By way of background, the Deal is essentially that which the Chancellor of
the Exchequer announced in his Autumn Budget, last November, when he stated that
he had come to an agreement with "Oxfordshire" to build 100,000 new houses in
the County, in exchange for up to £215m of Government money

The £215m amounts to £150m for infrastructure spending "to unlock key
housing sites", £60m for "affordable housing" and £5m for "resource funding to
boost capacity to get a joint plan in place" (see para 42 of the Outline
Agreement). The 100,000 new houses need to be delivered by 2031, some of
which have already been built. In addition, "Oxfordshire" commits to the
submission and adoption, subject to the inspection process, of a Joint Statutory
Spatial Plan, covering all 5 District Councils, by 2021

At the time of the Chancellor's announcement, it was not clear to me
whether there was to be a vote on this proposal. In fact, as I now
understand it all 5 District Councils (including City of Oxford) have agreed to
put it to the vote of all their Elected Members while Oxfordshire County Council
is restricting the vote to Cabinet Members only. There is to be no Public
Consultation.

I have made my views extremely clear to the Leadership of Cherwell and have
indicated that I will be voting against the proposal, having considered the
following points:

100,000 new houses is too many - I
fully accept that some new housing is required, not least to prevent a
youth-drain, but this can be addressed by small-scale sympathetic developments
where the marginal increase in population can be easily assimilated by, and
welcomed into, the host-community whilst preserving intact the fabric of that
community. The new giant housing estates on the edge of, and around,
villages, which will be the inevitable outcome of the Deal, with their
substantial populations (and cars), will, by their sheer scale, destroy the
historic communities they come to dominate. Ancient villages will
become anachronistic and quaint centres of soul-less dormitory towns.
Some of the 100,000 houses have now been completed, but as the Outline
Agreement, itself, makes clear at para 25 this quantum is "recognised as
significantly in excess of the Local Housing Need figures set out in the
Government consultation paper 'Planning for the right homes in the right
places (DCLG Sept 2017)'". The 100,000 figure was always regarded, by
many, as being flawed (even before the Brexit vote and the impact this could
have on population trends) and now the Government, itself, admits that it is
over-blown. Why, therefore, is the Deal still pushing this figure??
..... and why are the Oxfordshire Council Leaders so anxious to accommodate it
by accepting the Growth Board's recommendation ...... ?? (NB: the 6
Oxfordshire Council Leaders are the only voting members of the Growth Board,
thus they are recommending it to themselves)

£150m of new infrastructure is too
little - ........ surely, it cannot be simply to secure £150m of
infrastructure funding?? - which figure is so tiny as to be meaningless in
terms of what is needed to support the existing population, let alone a
further 300,000 - 400,000 people who will inhabit the new housing. In
any event, as para 42 of the Outline Agreement makes clear, the £150m is for
infrastructure to "unlock key housing sites" so not really to ameliorate the
current situation at all. The Oxfordshire Infrastructure Strategy 2017
identified £8.35bn of infrastructure investment needed for Oxfordshire by
2040, which is 55-times the derisory amount on offer as part of the
Deal

Will we lose control of the Planning
Process?? - I have no confidence that the Local Plans will be able
to withstand the pressures exerted by MHCLG (Ministry of Housing, Communities
and Local Government) despite the protections seemingly offered by para 65 of
the Outline Agreement, which in any case appear to evaporate upon completion
of the JSSP in 2021. Para 66 offers little comfort as the Cherwell Local
Plan can, in my view, be subverted by the Partial Review of Part 1 (dealing
with Oxford City's Unmet Housing Need) and Part 2 - both of which are
yet to be completed, examined and adopted. More worringly, Para 49
states that "ongoing work may focus on a number of areas, including .... the
use of powers, such as Compulsory Purchase Orders"

Whichever way I read the Deal it is bad news for a great
number of existing residents of Oxfordshire, turning an essentially rural county
into a suburban one and, as such, I will vote against it

I accept that there may be many people who
support the Deal and I should be delighted to hear the views of anyone, whether
in favour or against, so please do e-mail me at
hugo.brown@cherwell-dc.gov.uk